


A Study in Blue and Yellow

by Meganenoxana



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Friends, Cuddling probably, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hunk is a sweetheart but you knew that already, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Swearing, a bunch of smaller memories as told by Hunk and Lance, angsty Lance cause why not, ongoing, platonic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-10-23 03:14:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10710999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meganenoxana/pseuds/Meganenoxana
Summary: Lance slowly sinks further into quiet depression as the Castle takes them away from Home - Hunk happens to be his quick fix for homesickness.





	1. Hiding

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic on my 2nd language and a shot at my favorite Voltron ship. Starts out pretty platonic - will unravel in later chapters. I'm a sucker for Lance/Hunk's relationship; hope it'll show.

“For how long has he been in there?”

Hunk’s voice echoed through the halls of the chamber. He was met with a somber silence and a few heavyhearted stares from the others. The yellow Paladin furrowed his brow in an uncharacteristic manner and glared back at his companions.

“How _long_ -” he repeated himself, purposely slowing his staccato speech in a grim tone “-has he been in there?”

“Calm down, Hunk.” the sliding doors opened to allow Pidge’s entry into the narrow corridor; her arrival made him snap out of his aggressive inquiring-state and look away in a disconcerted manner “All of us talked to him. He’s been alone for little over half an hour.” her tone was far from combative or offensive, and she slowly walked up to the tall tanned Paladin with a morose expression. Hunk’s shoulders dropped ever so slightly as he lightly relaxed and averted her gaze.

“Sorry.” he massaged the back of his neck, mannerisms overflowing with anxiety and built-up tension. “You could have… you _should have_ called me, that’s all.”

“I’m truly sorry, Paladin; I’m afraid I’m… completely responsible for that.” Allura’s usual firm and authoritarian dialogue was almost entirely gone as she faced Hunk. The princess crossed her arms and glanced at the closed door, leading to the Bridge. “We took some heavy damage cruising through that asteroid-belt. I was sure we could have reached a middle ground with Lance, but“ the Altean noble paused, searching for the right words “you were the only one who could handle that breach, Hunk.”

“… Hunk.” Shiro’s hand was reassuringly placed on the bigger teenager’s shoulder. “We all cope differently. Let him be for now.”

The yellow Paladin didn’t reply. Everyone had their eyes on the Main Bridge’s entrance, locked shut and untampered with. The main corridor was now silent for the most part; only Coran’s shifting feet and a slight _purr_ from the ship’s movement could be heard.

“I guess so.” he allowed himself to relax a little further. “I’ll just… wait a little longer. I still need to finish working on that hull.”

Shiro patted him on the back as he moved past him, a small smile on his face and taking Keith with him with a friendly head gesture. Coran muttered a few cheerful words, slightly more disconcerted than usual, then quickly left after the two boys.

“He’ll come out soon enough.” Allura lightly touched his arm in a comforting manner and Hunk couldn’t help but question it in his head. “We’ll be back to check on him soon.”

“We will.” Pidge echoed, ever so focused on a new device on her forearm as she also left.

“Alright.” the big mechanic watched the outer doors close and listened quietly as the footsteps gradually faded into silence “… Alright.” he turned to face the main door. Besides the murmur of the ship’s futuristic engine, Hunk couldn’t pick up any other sound coming from the Bridge “Lance?...”

No response. He tightened the cloth band around his dishevelled hair and banged on the door. Keith told him they had tried calling out to him earlier; the red Paladin said he had responded, although not very enthusiastically. _“He asked us for some time”_ , Hunk recalled. Now he felt even more upset – to think Lance could hear him loud and clear and decided to ignore him… “Dude, let me in.” his tone betrayed him now. He sounded clearly irritated as he knocked again.

He almost fell on his back when the huge door slid open. Repressing a startled groan, Hunk let himself in with a quiet _“’m coming in”_ and watched over his shoulder as the doors closed again behind him “… Lance, buddy.”

“Did you ever realize?” Hunk stopped at the first ring of Lance’s tone.

“What?”

“How far we are. From home.” the taller boy finally spotted the blue Paladin, sitting on a step by the furthest section of the Bridge. He spoke in a monotone, sullen timbre, and Hunk couldn’t help but notice he barely projected his voice. In fact, he could barely hear him. He paced, slowly approaching him, eyes firmly laid on his slouched back and shoulders. He looked smaller (and slimmer) than ever. The mechanic quickly dismissed this idea; after all, they had spoken not even an hour earlier and Lance had been his usual self: loud, entitled, overconfident and sarcastic. Then the new coordinates were announced. “Like, don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure” he let out a raspy, emotionless laugh “I’m _pretty sure_ this last wormhole tossed us even further away from Earth.”

“Coran’s still working on our whereabouts.” He sat down beside him. The whole room was tinted a blue and purple hue. Outside, deep, dark infinity with a small chance of any kind of sighting. It really felt like they were in the middle of nothing. “… Hey.” After taking in the wistful atmosphere, the bigger Paladin finally faced his friend. “If you wanna be alone I can leave, just… make sure you come out before dinner, a’ight? I wanna check those lower levels by the hull-”

“It’s fine.” Lance interrupted him with a firm, pointed tone. He didn’t face Hunk. He just kept staring at the big, dark unknown in front of him, arms around his knees and chin resting on them. His eyes were red but his face was dry and emotionless “You’re fine, buddy.” His voice flickered slightly. With a small sigh, Hunk stretched his legs forward and wiggled his feet absent-mindedly, leaning back on his elbows and facing the transparent ceiling. His face was still tense but he was a lot more at ease now – besides, he’d been working on the ship’s ruptures and fissures all morning; he could use a little break. “… I’m not sure I can do this.” The blue Paladin’s voice was all but a whisper at this point.

Hunk didn’t muster the courage to answer right away. He pondered heavily on the meaning of those words, yearning to reassure Lance but also anxious about the outcome. The gentle giant held his torso up to match Lance’s position, but kept his own fingers entwined and legs resting on the floor.

“None of us are.” he said, very matter-of-factly “But, y’know, we-” the large teenager stared at his own hands “We _try_ to rely on each other. Everyone’s upset right now.” Engrossed in the gloomy atmosphere of the large room, he distractedly brushed Lance’s leg with his own. The sudden touch seemed to startle Lance; he peeped at Hunk by the corner of his eye. “They’re also worried about you.”

The sound that came out of Lance’s mouth was a mix between a chuckle and a lament. Hunk’s thick eyebrow rose ever so slightly as he side-eyed him. “What?” cried Hunk, moving to face the smaller teenager. “… Lance, we just-” he managed to keep his voice low and relatively neutral. “We all want to get through this.”

There was a look of discomfort in Lance’s face as he shifted in his spot and hit one of the many buttons by the dashboard, one Coran had told him about and he had pressed many a time. The large chamber was suddenly filled with hologram-like stars, galaxies and planets. The cool-toned images swirled softly around the room, some going through the two friends as they moved, and then a single galaxy stopped in front of their eyes. Hunk watched, agape, but Lance simply sank further into his slouching position, watching melancholically. The Milky Way was briefly featured before a snap of the smaller boy’s fingers filled the room – he’d done this before and knew exactly how to manipulate the Bridge’s hologram-like technology.

“There it is” he murmured, and Hunk _knew_ right away there were tears running down his cheeks. Earth stood there, gently spinning on its axis at a slight angle. They both watched it for minutes, in complete silence. None of them were ready to break the peaceful stillness and serenity that the vision had cast upon them. Hunk tried keeping his eyes (and mind) off the other boy, attempting to give him a sense of privacy and peaceful introspective. It hit him hard – and he could hear the little muffled noises he made from time to time. Then Lance hit another button abruptly – and then it was all gone. The feeling in the yellow Paladin’s chest was outlandish and hard to describe. “And here we are.”

And with that last futile excuse of a dialogue, Lance buried his face on his arms and sobbed.


	2. Chasing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “… ‘S goin’ on?” he sounded faint.  
> “I don’t know, _what’s_ going on?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably be a slow-burner. I love me some slow-burners. I'm also a sucker for hormones.  
> Hmmm... _Angsty-teen-space-drama._  
>  I should make that a tag.

Hunk’s eyes snapped open as he awoke turbulently, gasping for air. Lance’s crying face was embedded in the back of his mind like a sticker and he could clearly see it behind his own lids as he blinked. He’d been dreaming about it regularly for the entire past week; the new coordinates being confirmed by Coran, the asteroid-belt and the urgency in Allura’s words. While he’d taken to the lower parts of the ship to work on the newly-found gaps on the hull, Pidge had left the room to analyse the data, Shiro had ( _obviously_ ) taken the lead and exchanged opinions with the Alteans, and he specifically remembered Keith’s concerned gaze over the many screens and panels before him.

Lance, however, had been uncharacteristically silent.

It was no secret that the Castle drifted further and further away from the Paladin’s home planet. In-between Galra attacks and various other incidents, Coran did his utmost to keep the ship safe from harm and travelling the best course possible. As a mechanic, however, Hunk quickly realized how big of a toll asteroid-belts were for the ship’s structure. Hyper speed, heavy incoming fire and ESPECIALLY wormholes – none of these were easy on the Castle’s skeleton.

“We’ve been swimming around this asteroid field for _days_ now” Hunk remembered Coran’s words vividly “We’re blind but at least we’re hidden – the silicate-heavy composition of the troposphere is sure to keep us out of Galra sonars!”

“While losing _our_ own radars.” Pidge’s voice sounded uneasy. Everyone was agitated – Keith paced around the Bridge, arms folded while facing the ground.

“We’ll do fine” the black Paladin’s voice sounded as assuring as it possibly could in that situation “We’re counting on you, Coran.”

What bothered Hunk the most, (he recalled it several times in his head since then), was how he instinctively missed Lance’s reaction – no loud sigh, no witty remark or complain. He looked over at the blue Paladin’s designed seat only to find him sullenly stare at the screen in front of him.

“Buddy?” he felt tremendously ignored “Lance.”

Lance finally reacted, flashing him a sullen expression which he could not decipher.

“… ‘S goin’ on?” he sounded faint.

“I don’t know, _what’s_ going on?” Hunk tried to keep his tone as neutral as possible, but he was aware of how apprehensive he might have sounded.  
Nonetheless, Lance flashed him a (more or less) characteristic smirk and averted the taller man’s gaze.

“I’m tired of all this fucking Space, man.”

* * *

 “It’s _really_ early, Hunk.” Pidge’s voice snapped him out of his trance. With a small sigh, he resumed his pathetic excuse of a breakfast. “Couldn’t sleep?” she sat next to him on the small canteen they regularly shared, sliding over to allow Keith and Shiro to join them.

“What is ‘early’ anyway. It’s always… _dark._ ” Hunk played around with the puke-green goo on his plate, gazing into it with a discouraged expression.

“That sounded just like Lance right now.”

Hunk flew off the handle, staring straight across the table distraughtly. Keith apologized immediately but the atmosphere was evidently tense and there was no turning back – Pidge shuffled in her seat, silently begging Shiro for some support, and Hunk seemed to snap back into his usual self as soon as he felt the apprehensive silence all around him.

“… Sorry.” he dropped the spoon in his tray with a loud metallic clash, giving up on trying to make the (less than edible) meal seem appealing. “I worked… I worked late last night. On the Bridge, as well." Mentioning the specific room in which he’d first seen Lance cry gave him all sorts of flashbacks.

“Be sure not to overwork yourself, Hunk.” Shiro’s words sounded beyond wise, as always, and helped everyone regain some of their composure. “I talked to Lance yesterday.” The yellow Paladin’s gaze rose instantly to face Shiro. “He doesn’t really… seem to open up with me.” He smiled, perhaps sadly, and the others seemed to sunk even further into their seats. Lance’s behaviour quickly spiralled out of control since the week before. In fact, Hunk had barely even talked to him after their meeting at the Bridge – the smaller teenager had wiped his eyes, muttered a few imperceptible words under his breath and left with a faint “ _see ya_ ”. From then on, they had met in the corridors, during some light training and that was about it. He ate either earlier or after everyone else. He spoke (little to nothing), walked around with a sullen expression and barely even left his room after dinner.

He also spent an awful lot of time on the Bridge, although he stopped locking himself in (after being asked not to by virtually every living being aboard the ship). Hunk would knock on the sliding doors now and then, with a new excuse ready at hand: he needed to access some files for Coran, he’d forgotten some of his tools, he wanted to check the new pressure plates by the seats. Time and time again, Lance would be seated near the front part of the room, either staring into Space or absent-mindedly watching the holograms. They’d spin quietly around him, illuminating his face with a gentle blue hue.

He would very rarely talk to Hunk. This made the mechanic feel more and more frustrated as the days went by.

“Why’sit so _god-damn_ cold?”

Lance’s voice seemed to startle everyone in the room. Hunk felt his own face light up, a glimmer of hope in his dark brown eyes as he heard him – he sounded like Lance, for once, and he had joined the others on his own free will.

“Coran says we’re the farthest away from any Sun-like star we’ve ever been!” Pidge was thrilled to put her knowledge to good use and adjusted her glasses with a smile on her face “This means our course is one hundred percent correct and we should be arriving at the origin of the distress signal in no time.”

Hunk had almost forgot about it. During the last few days, a distinctly strong distress signal had lit up all their radars overnight, and Voltron had evidently set course to its source. The others smiled discretely at the over-excited green Paladin as Lance sat next to Shiro, his own tray in hand and a neutral expression.

“Well, damn, if that doesn’t mean more work.” Hunk couldn’t help but flash a huge smile at his friend. He had missed Lance’s whining. While the others engaged in small-talk with him, Hunk scanned him – he had dark circles and ever-so-slightly red eyes. While he spoke, however, he looked and sounded like Lance. As the casual discussion went by, he got to see him wave a spoon full of goo around, point it menacingly at Keith and even what looked like the start of a chuckle. The others were also pleasantly surprised, Hunk noticed; they seemed to _drink_ from the newly-found energy and drive.

“… Hunk?”

At first, Hunk heard Keith’s voice as if through a drywall. Then, the rest collectively quieted down, all eyes turning to Hunk. Lance was the sole object of his gaze and he too frowned, returning his stare with a distraught expression.

“Hunk, buddy, what’s–”

The big man stood up so abruptly he tipped over all the glasses on his side of the metal table. Shiro and Lance rose to their feet, partly to avoid getting hit by the spewed red liquid, and Hunk paced backwards awkwardly.

“Haha, I… I don’t _know_ , man, I – ” he heard his own voice crack. Looking down at his hands, he finally felt the tears streaming down his cheeks and onto his orange shirt. It almost stung. He could feel the pressure and anxiety build up as the others faced him. “I… I gotta go, I – ”

He hurried out the door, repressing a sob as he ran out.

“What the – ” Lance threw a questioning look at the others before jumping off the bench himself. “Hunk, wait UP!”

> _“Shit.”_

“HUNK.”

> _“Shit shit shit, what it – what – why would I –”_

“HUNK, BUDDY!”

> _“Why – why won’t you ignore me now, what am I - fuck, FUCK.”_

The chase was short-lived. Hunk closed the doors shut of his room, hitting the button by the entrance with enough strength to eternally shut it off. He stumbled and sat on the edge of the bed, alone, astonished, hastily wiping his face dry with the back off his hands. It proved to be useless – the tears kept coming, like a torrent; unmanned, unexplained and now accompanied by ugly sobs and spasms.

 

 

 

 


End file.
